Visualization

Seeing Sukhāvatī: Yogācāra and the Origins of Pure Land Visualization

by Richard Payne

published: Pure Land, ns no 20 D 2003, p 265-283.

Precis: One of the practices characteristic of the Pure Land tradition is visualization, as found for example in the... more Precis: One of the practices characteristic of the Pure Land tradition is visualization, as found for example in the Visualization Sutra and the Rebirth Treatise Discourse on the Pure Land attributed to Vasubandhu. The question this paper pursues is: How did the creators of such visualization practices conceive that they would be effective in leading one to awakening? The origins of Pure Land visualization practice place it in the same religious milieu as Yogäcära. Any religious practice implies a conception of human existence which defines the human condition, the path, and goal of practice. For an understanding of how visualization practice was understood to be effective, it is important to consider what the contribution of Yogäcära psychology was to the intellectual milieu of Pure Land visualization practice.
Most importantly for Yogäcära, the idea of a fundamental reorientation (äsrayaparävrtti) of consciousness serves to identify the way in which practice effects a change leading to awakening. This paper will, therefore, first describe an instance of visualizing Sukhavatï, and second describe the Yogäcära conceptions of the way in which a fundamental reorientation of consciousness is achieved. Finally, it will be suggested that visualization practice was understood in a variety of ways, at least one of which was that of Yogäcära psychology.

As You Can See: Applying Visual Collaborative Filtering to Works of Art

by Gerhard Jan Nauta

published in Digital Humanities Quarterly

Art historically relevant visual knowledge can be deconstructed and the resulting components of this visual knowledge... more Art historically relevant visual knowledge can be deconstructed and the resulting components of this visual knowledge — visual discernments — lend themselves to be socially negotiated. Individual visual experts (like connoisseurs) do not share some grand and undividable cognitive cataloguing system; they are attentive to piecemeal visual discernments and the patterns in which these occur in reality. In conventional scholarly communication sophisticated tools to discuss perceptual patterns are lacking. This paper not only proposes a theoretical model of visual knowledge accumulation, but also describes a practical implementation, Art.Similarities, which is designed as a prototype of such a sophisticated tool. Using a custom-made interface it records visual behavior: the non-verbally expressed visual similarity judgments of distributed individuals. Users can be assigned to groups according to the qualities of their judgments. These qualities may be distilled from emerging similarity patterns. The implications of individual judgments in different user groups may vary considerably. Emerging patterns can be assessed both according to human analysis and statistical procedures. Most studies on art evaluation are attentive to either the characteristics of works, or the characteristics of observers. In this study both are considered as interdependent entities consistently.

Symbols of Power in Rituals of Violence: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm on the Soviet Empire’s Periphery (East Germany, 1945–61)

by Alexey Tikhomirov

published in: Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2012, pp. 47-88.

A Visual Approach to Multiculturalism

by Jerome Krase

This is a draft of an article that appeared as “A Visual Approach to Multiculturalism,” in Beyond Multiculturalism edited by Giuliana Prato, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2009: 1-38.

There are undoubtedly many ways by which one can approach multiculturalism and its many intersections at the local,... more There are undoubtedly many ways by which one can approach multiculturalism and its many intersections at the local, national and global levels. Each different perspective on the subject adds another dimension to our understanding of this complex, and changing phenomena. Offered here is a visual approach to one of its more ubiquitous versions, ethnic diversity, as it is expressed in the appearance of vernacular landscapes. It is argued that there is something about ethnic vernacular landscapes that can be best grasped via the use of image-based research. It is also suggested that such an approach might provide some needed focus to the inter- and intra-disciplinary debates over cultural diversity in its many scientific and related ideological forms.

Metadata Mapper: a web service for mapping data between independent visual analysis components, guided by perceptual rules (Proceedings Paper)

by Naim Matasci

Co-Authored with Bernice E. Rogowitz, University of Texas, Austin and Visual Perspectives. Published in the Proceedings of the SPIE Conference on Human Vision and Electronic Imaging (2011).

The explosion of online scientific data from experiments, simulations, and observations has given rise to an avalanche... more The explosion of online scientific data from experiments, simulations, and observations has given rise to an avalanche of algorithmic, visualization and imaging methods. There has also been enormous growth in the introduction of tools that provide interactive interfaces for exploring these data dynamically. Most systems, however, do not support the real- time exploration of patterns and relationships across tools and do not provide guidance on which colors, colormaps or visual metaphors will be most effective. In this paper, we introduce a general architecture for sharing metadata between applications and a “Metadata Mapper” component that allows the analyst to decide how metadata from one component should be represented in another, guided by perceptual rules. This system is designed to support “brushing,” in which highlighting a region of interest in one application automatically highlights corresponding values in another, allowing the scientist to develop insights from multiple sources. Our work builds on the component-based iPlant Cyberinfrastructure and provides a general approach to supporting interactive, exploration across independent visualization and visual analysis components.

A Texture-Based Framework for Improving CFD Data Visualization In a Virtual Environment

by Gerrick Bivins

Educational visualizations in 3D collaborative virtual environments: a methodology

by Mikhail Fominykh

Mikhail Fominykh and Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland: "Educational Visualizations in 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments: a Methodology," International Journal of Interactive Technology and Smart Education (ITSE), Volume 9, issue 1, 2012, Emerald, ISSN: 1741-5659, pp. 33–45. DOI:10.1108/17415651211228086

Purpose – Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) have become increasingly popular in educational settings and the... more Purpose – Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) have become increasingly popular in educational settings and the role of 3D content is becoming more and more important. Still, there are many challenges in this area, such as lack of empirical studies that provide design for educational activities in 3D CVEs and lack of norms of how to support and assess learning in with such technology. The purpose of this paper is to address these challenges by discussing the use of a 3D CVE in a university course for three years and suggesting practical guidelines based on the data from observations.

Design/methodology/approach – The main research question of the discussion in this paper is: How to facilitate learning by means of educational visualizations in 3D CVEs? The authors discuss data from several explorative case studies conducted within the Cooperation Technology course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In these case studies, the authors focused on a particular type of collaborative work with 3D content – educational visualizations. Groups of students were asked to build creative visualizations of a certain topic (e.g. a research project or a curriculum topic) and present the construction to the public. The data were collected from the direct observation of students' activities online, virtual artefacts, such as chat log and 3D constructions, and users' feedback in a form of group essays or blogs.

Findings – Following the analysis of these data, the authors introduce an original methodology for facilitating collaborative work with 3D content in an educational context and provide a characterization framework – Typology of 3D Content and Visualization Means, which can be used together with the methodology for analysing constructions in 3D CVEs. Constructionism and social constructivism were used as a theoretical grounding.

Research limitations/implications – Although the research method applied has certain limitations related to the settings of the conducted studies, such as observing the same course each year and impossibility of having a control group, this research still provides important insights, as it identifies overall tendencies in conducting educational activities in 3D CVEs.

Practical implications – The suggested methodology was developed for teachers, instructors, and technicians. It can be used as a guideline for organizing educational activities using collaborative work with 3D content.

Originality/value – Results of the authors' research indicate that the methodology suggested in the paper benefits structuring and planning of educational visualizations in 3D CVEs. It can be considered as a contribution to the field, as it helps to fill the gap in practical guidelines for the advanced use of 3D CVEs in educational settings.

Designing map-based visualizations for collection understanding

by Olga Buchel

This paper describes a conceptualization of collection understanding task and its implementation in a map-based... more This paper describes a conceptualization of collection understanding task and its implementation in a map-based visualization (MBV) prototype that represents a library collection. Unlike previous conceptualizations that treat a collection as a whole composed of documents, our conceptualization is grounded in widely-researched concepts "collection" and "understanding.

Extending map-based visualizations to support visual tasks: The role of ontological properties

by Olga Buchel

Co-authored with Professor Kamran Sedig

Map-based visualizations of document collections have become popular in recent times. However, most of these... more Map-based visualizations of document collections have become popular in recent times. However, most of these visualizations emphasize only geospatial properties of objects, leaving out other ontological properties. In this paper we propose to extend these visualizations to include non-geospatial properties of documents to support users with elementary and synoptic visual tasks. More specifically, additional suitable representations that can enhance the utility of map-based visualizations are discussed. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed solution, we have developed a prototype map-based visualization system using Google Maps (GM) which demonstrates how additional representations can be beneficial.

Using Map-Based Visual Interfaces to Facilitate Knowledge Discovery in Digital Libraries

by Olga Buchel

Co-authored with Professor Kamran Sedig

In recent years there has been growing interest in supporting knowledge discovery activities using map-based visual... more In recent years there has been growing interest in supporting knowledge discovery activities using map-based visual interfaces. The goal is promising and ambitious, but not very easy to achieve due to the lack of understanding of cognitive factors involved in how information is transformed into knowledge. In this paper we present a map-based visual interface, VICOLEX (VIsual COLlection Explorer), aimed at facilitating and supporting knowledge discovery and users’ cognitive activities by means of integrated visual representations coupled with interactions.

Can Interactive Map-Based Visualizations Reveal Contexts of Scientific Datasets?

by Olga Buchel

This paper is co-authored with Eva Fischer. It will be presented at CAIS 2012.

Existing map-based visualizations of scientific datasets support a small number of tasks. They do not allow users to... more Existing map-based visualizations of scientific datasets support a small number of tasks. They do not allow users to visually inspect properties and contexts in scientific datasets and focus only on showing locations in space and time. This paper describes a prototype that provides a better support for visual analyses of scientific contexts by means of additional representations and richer interactions with scientific data.

Mpeg-7 feature visualization for CBIR Systems

by Laila Hussein Shoukry

—Content-Based Image Retrieval techniques are
developed in an attempt to make fast and efficient explorationmore —Content-Based Image Retrieval techniques are
developed in an attempt to make fast and efficient exploration
of visual content possible. In addition, standard MPEG-7 visual
features should offer interoperability across different multimedia
database systems. This paper presents an attempt to bridge the
gap between the target semantic concepts of multimedia data
and the available low-level visual descriptors by providing an
intermediate feedback to the user of a CBIR system where the
features selected in his query are visualized according to his
input image. Two MPEG-7 visual features, a color feature (Color
Layout Descriptor - CLD) and a texture feature (Edge Histogram
Descriptor -EHD), were chosen for this purpose.

Manovich - How to Follow Software Users

by Lev Manovich

Media Visualization: Visual Techniques for Exploring Large Media Collections.

by Lev Manovich

The article explains the limitations of current web interfaces and tools for viewing and managing media collections.... more The article explains the limitations of current web interfaces and tools for viewing and managing media collections. We describe new method which we call media visualization - use of high resolution visualizations which show all images in a collection (or key video frames) sorted in different ways to enable discovering patterns and understanding the "shape" or a collection.

Victorian observing practices, printing technology, and representations of the solar corona

by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Narrative Architectures After the Book. New Containers and Standards for Stories in Digital Culture

by Carolyn Guertin

A visual analytics framework for feature and classifier engineering

by Henrico Dolfing

Visualisation issues for human systems development: the case of a knowledge sharing support system

by Feliz Gouveia

OGC Schemas Browser: Visualizing OWS'XML Schemas

by Alain Tamayo

OGC Web Services (OWS) are a set of implementation specifications to exchange geospatial information using a Service... more OGC Web Services (OWS) are a set of implementation specifications to exchange geospatial information using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). These specifications use XML Schema as the language to express the structure of the exchanged messages. The size of the schemas associated to the specifications has been growing with time reaching a point that they are very hard to understand and use to build real systems. Source code to manipulate XML instances based on these schemas sometimes is generated using XML Data binding generators. The generated code frequently presents a poor performance due mainly to the large number of classes in the final code. Understanding why the number of generated classes is so high or trying to find a way to optimize this code is a task that is very hard to accomplish using the features included in modern XML editors or other XML-processing related tools. In this regard, in this paper we present a tool that provides users with a different way of analyzing the schemas of OWS specifications. The tool is focused on the visualization of dependency relationships at different levels. At the time of this writing, the visualization of specification dependencies, namespace dependencies, file dependencies, and type dependencies are supported.

VINEdb: a data warehouse for integration and interactive exploration of life science data.

by Sridhar Hariharaputran

Control of cell proliferation, differentiation, activation and cell removal is crucial for the development and... more Control of cell proliferation, differentiation, activation and cell removal is crucial for the development and existence of multi-cellular organisms. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a major control mechanism by which cells die and is also important in controlling cell number and proliferation as part of normal development. Molecular networks that regulate these processes are critical targets for drug development, gene therapy, and metabolic engineering. The molecular interactions involved in this and other processes are analyzed and annotated by experts and stored as data in different databases. The key task is to integrate, manage and visualize these data available from different sources and present them in a user-comprehensible manner. Here we present VINEdb, a data warehouse developed to interact with and to explore integrated life science data. Extendable open source data warehouse architecture enables platform-independent usability of the web application and the underlying infrastructure. A high degree of transparency and up-to-dateness is ensured by a monitor component to control and update the data from the sources. Furthermore, the system is supported by a visualization component to allow interactive graphical exploration of the integrated data. We will use apoptotic pathway and caspase-3 as a case study to show capability and usability of our approach. VINEdb is available at http://tunicata.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/VINEdb/.